By DAVID MUCHUI

In Summary

In a memorandum read by Speaker Joseph Kaberia last week, Mr Munya said the Assembly slashed the development expenditure from 33 per cent to 31 per cent.

Other changes that the governor wants made to the Meru County Appropriation Bill 2016 include scrapping of the phrase 'Ward development projects' since there is no law to support it.

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Anti-riot police were on Tuesday deployed to the Meru county assembly ahead of a debate on governor Peter Munya's memorandum rejecting the Sh8.3 billion 2016/2017 budget.

There were reports of a plot by a section of members of public to cause chaos within the precincts of County Assembly.

The public gallery was filled mostly by youths interested in the outcome of the budget debate.

Several other youths were locked out of the County Assembly as anti-riot police armed with teargas canisters patrolled the compound.

The session which was to start at 2.30pm was delayed for more than one hour in unclear circumstances.

Mr Munya rejected the Meru county Appropriation Bill 2016 citing significant reduction of development allocation by Members of the County Assembly.

In a memorandum read by Speaker Joseph Kaberia last week, Mr Munya said the Assembly slashed the development expenditure from 33 per cent to 31 per cent.

"The spirit of the law is to ensure progressive increase in development expenditure rather than decrease it. I therefore insist that we revert back to the overall development expenditure to 33pc," the memorandum reads.

He also accused the Assembly of exceeding its budget ceiling by Sh55 million against the County Allocation of Revenue Act, 2015 ceiling of Sh839. 5million.

The MCAs had cited a circular from the Commission for Revenue Allocation (CRA) that stated that loans and mortgages were not part of set ceilings.